Your hive does not seem to be damaged at all, and everything inside of it looks normal.

You decide to check if your basement stayed the same way. Your basement is the land of nostalgia. You use it to store all manner of old games you are no longer playing, or valuable collectibles you have amassed over the years. Maybe something useful will manifest itself down there.

You are relieved to see that your basement is still intact. You rummage around all your old possessions. After going through a literal nostalgia trip, you stumble upon the MEGASONAR 43200, a headset awarded to you at the very first gaming tournament you've ever won first place. The game was an one-on-one fighter named FLASH MOTHERS. It was pretty fun, but the competitive scene died a long time ago. The last balance patch made GRUBINETTA too powerful. Everyone was playing her and eventually the scene became boring...

In any case, this headset holds a very high sentimental value for you. Maybe you should wear it for old time's sake. It is not super good by today's standards, but it is so sturdy it almost works like a helmet!

You get back to the main floor and notice Mykran's messages

RB: Understood, @Mykran! I will go there immediately! I am kinda scared, but excited at the same time. This game is rather amazing. #MysteriousGame

You approach the weird critters cautiously, but it soon becomes apparent they are very friendly beings. One of them urges you to follow it. It leads you to a small metallic hut with a sign on it reading "SHOP". Looks like this is the starter town of the game. So this is more like an RPG, huh? You still don't know what to think about the consistenty of the mechanics...

All of those items look really appealing! Looks like the game is tailored to the user's strife specibus. You're impressed by this incredible technology. You are also curious about those things called fraymotifs. Are they special attacks of sorts? In any case, you don't think you have any boonbucks at hand, so you ask how to get some. The critter points towards the outskirts of the town. Looks like some small impish creatures with barkbeast features and metal armor are walking around. Low level enemies? You wonder how does combat work in this game

You decide to walk up to the low level enemies with a certain sense of confidence. They should not be much of a problem right? They are the intro enemies after all.

You pick one of them up with your psionic powers and smash it straight into your headset. The enemy pops out of existence, leaving behind a bunch of weird objects

+100 Build Grist+100 Boonbucks

Interesting.

The other enemies notice you and go after your life. It is not until one of them scratches you that you realize this is more real than you ever thought. Now a little fearful, you repeat your strategy until no more enemies are nearby

+2000 Build Grist+2000 Boonbucks

Tired, you go back to the shop and buy the Metal Headset. You promptly wear it

-1000 Boonbucks

Some of the locals tell you of an Inn. You decide to rest there for a while

You don't have enough money to buy new gear yet, but perhaps you could use some of the machines in your respiteblock...

Before doing that however, you ask the villagers about any quests you could partake in.

One of them tells you something interesting: Apparently a great master of wisdom and courage is asking for the help of a mighty hero. He is trying to communicate by using a special communication device located at the end of the biggest cable of them all.

The villager points to this cable: it is as wide and tall as one of the houses, and it extends pretty far into the horizon. Looks like you just need to follow it! Pretty easy quest if you say so yourself.

You go back to the respiteblock and figure out the alchemiter's intricacies using your gamer's intuition

You combine the MEGASONAR 43200 with the Metal Headgear to build the HEAVYMETAL 63200, a sturdy headset with sentimental value. You promptly equip it. You also combine your plain clothes with a collectible FLASH MOTHERS card, specifically of one of your favorite characters: AFFIL the fairy hero. The resulting outfit is a marsh-colored tunic with a funny hat. The hat would interfere with your headset, so you decide against wearing it.

You do so. It does not take long before you reach a section where the cable starts going underground. A small screen is attached to the cable here. It looks like it is a chatroom of some sort

MASTER: Hello. I was waiting for your arrivalMASTER: I am the master of this world. I have been wrongly imprisoned by the evils that be.MASTER: You are one of the heroes destined to help me, and at the same time gain glory and richesMASTER: But first, I must test you

Suddenly an Ogre appears in front of you. It has a doggie face. Looks like it is time to strife!

The ogre runs at you surprisingly fast for something of its size. You brace yourself for impact, but the ogre decides to lay on his belly and wag his tail.

Does...it want you to pet it? What a weird challenge

You approach to pet the dog-ogre, but then it "playfully" slaps you with its paw, sending you flying a short distance. Your headset protects you, but it still hurts like hell. The ogre attempts to keep "playing" with you, even it is has to be with your lifeless body.

Not content with being killed like this, you use your psionic powers to slightly deviate the ogre's course, making it crash against one of the big cables passing through. You then prepare yourself and run headfirst into the ogre's back, successfully stabbing it with your metallic headgear. The ogre whimpers and explodes into grist

You create a makeshift grave for the dogre using your psionic powers and some nearby debris and cable pieces. The grave reads: "Here lies dogre, who played too much for its own good". You spend 1 minute in silence

You keep exploring the landscape. You walk around, seeing nothing but empty plains and more cables. Eventually, you reach an interesting place.

It is some sort of building where many cables enter. You can hear the sound of electric currents running on the inside. Since you're feeling adventurous, you decide to enter.

The first thing you see once inside is a masive network of interconnected cables going across the ceiling, as well as many small cables along the floor and walls that seem to be carrying electric energy. You don't have much time to appreciate all of this, as suddenly a bunch of doggoImps appear from the other side of the room